Certainly not in telecommunications!
All but one telecommunication company* that I know of violates two of the four requirements of a free market.
1) Many buyers and sellers (there are only a few sellers)
2) Buyers and sellers are free to enter and leave the market (we can give up our phones, but…)
3) Buyers and sellers have all the information they need to make a decision (the sellers sure don’t want to give you complete pricing information)
4) All costs are in the sale, that is, no externalities (well, there are externalities like telephone wires, but few really care about their existence)
This little screed was triggered by my desire to have better internet speed than about 5Mbps (nominal 7). In Duluth, I can get 23Mbps on my cell phone, but if I use it as a hotspot for my laptop the speed drops down to less than 2Mbps. That means I can’t easily replace my DSL modem by using my cell phone. My cell phone is with Consumer Cellular* which in turn uses AT&T. My DSL modem and home phone are with CenturyLink.
AT&T does provide quite a menu to match what you think you need with what is available. Plans can get pricy if you use several devices, say two tablets and two computers.
The best deal I could figure out was a mobile hotspot with 4GB/month of data at $50. I can only guess on how much I use. The mobile hotspot (Unite Pro) costs $200 but is $50 with a 2 year contract (“excluding other account charges”). If could be sure that we would stay in that limit, it might be a good replacement for our DSL. Dropping the land line entirely, we could add a home base for our telephone and use our Consumer Cellular account. That would only be a $10/month charge. But, how much more voice time would we use?
As for staying in the 4GB/month, I can’t be sure. My wife spends a lot of time on Skype.
Also, I can’t be sure the AT&T hotspot would always get above 20Mbps.
Also, just how much are those “other account charges”?
On the other hand, CenturyLink is offering 100Mpbs in certain locations. Try to find those locations! I got a gibberish page.
To get more detailed information, I had to have an online account. I won’t go through the hassle I had for that, but I need not have done that. My wife already had an online account.
When I eventually got my account working, I found the best we can do is 12Mbps. I can’t find out the price until I request the upgrade!! So much for the free market. New subscribers can get it for $19.95/month. If we’re paying about $60/month for phone and internet (including “other account charges”). If the cost is split, we’re paying more than new subscribers for our nominal 7Mbps!
Do I go for an AT&T hotspot or do I replace our nine-year-old CenturyLink modem?
*Consumer Cellular is about the only telecommunications company that I know that tells you all of your costs (except “other account charges”). Not only that, they warn you if your usage might go over your selected usage limit. And you can change your limits up or down at any time. The only problem I have, other than the cell phone as hot spot is not as fast I thought it would be, is that the max data limit is 2.5GB/month.
Decisions, decisions! Computers may be more powerful than pens and paper, but buying pens and paper was a lot easier.
Showing posts with label Home Phone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Phone. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Helpless help desks revisited
Well, for the fourth time this year I've asked for help from a major corporation and for the fourth time I've given them a solution.
The first time was when our DSL from CenturyLink was squirrelly. It would go on and off. The first person I spoke with diddled with some settings from her computer and our speed was up again. The problem returned. On the next few calls, the help desk insisted that I should get a new modem. I did not because I was sure the problem was storm related and in CenturyLink's lines. We still have the old modem and we are getting around 6Mbps on our nominal 7Mbps service. See "Efficiency (or inefficiency) - generalizations do not apply". CenturyLink apparently repaired the lines that I insisted were the problem. Or we haven't had many really windy storms since then.
The second time was when the keyboard locked up on my MacBook Pro. It was still on warranty from Best Buy and so I took it to the Geek Squad. They kept if for a day or two and could find nothing wrong. It wasn't until I had it at home for a day or two that I discovered that it was Microsoft Outlook, which Geek Squad had closed, causing the problem. My database probably had gotten too big and Outlook had an error that was writing outside its area. I compacted the database and the problem went away. See "Computer withdrawal symptoms".
The third time was when the Westinghouse solar shed light would not turn on again after I turned it off. See "Simple questions don't get simple answers from corporate bureaucracies". The light is working fine after I put in newer batteries.
The fourth time was when I found out that our improper time on our cabin answering machine was because I needed a firmware update. None of the friendly folks at Consumer Cellular seemed to understand that the AT&T network was resetting the time. I found this out when I read the answering machine instructions and learned that telephone networks send the time with caller-ID information. When we used a land-line we didn't have caller-ID. Caller-ID is standard with cell phone service. I found that I needed a firmware update from a search of AT&Ts support forums. One user responded to another last month with the solution. I sent email back to Consumer Cellular about this. I wrote that I was tempted to send them an invoice for two hours of Level 2 support work.
I don't expect to have a response from Consumer Cellular until Monday. Meanwhile, I searched the AT&T website for instructions on getting the firmware update. Nada! First, it gave me over 3,000 hits where the first two pages didn't have anything relevant. I searched on the web for the model number and found that the original manufacturer has instructions for upgrading the firmware to the latest level, for those with a Windows computer! I did another peek at the AT&T site and found a page for the "Wireless Home Phone". It had no information at all on updating the firmware!
There are some economists (and many non-economists) who say that the only objective of a corporation should be to provide shareholder value. But to provide shareholder value doesn't a corporation need to provide customer value? At some point a captive customer base may burst their shackles and go elsewhere.
The first time was when our DSL from CenturyLink was squirrelly. It would go on and off. The first person I spoke with diddled with some settings from her computer and our speed was up again. The problem returned. On the next few calls, the help desk insisted that I should get a new modem. I did not because I was sure the problem was storm related and in CenturyLink's lines. We still have the old modem and we are getting around 6Mbps on our nominal 7Mbps service. See "Efficiency (or inefficiency) - generalizations do not apply". CenturyLink apparently repaired the lines that I insisted were the problem. Or we haven't had many really windy storms since then.
The second time was when the keyboard locked up on my MacBook Pro. It was still on warranty from Best Buy and so I took it to the Geek Squad. They kept if for a day or two and could find nothing wrong. It wasn't until I had it at home for a day or two that I discovered that it was Microsoft Outlook, which Geek Squad had closed, causing the problem. My database probably had gotten too big and Outlook had an error that was writing outside its area. I compacted the database and the problem went away. See "Computer withdrawal symptoms".
The third time was when the Westinghouse solar shed light would not turn on again after I turned it off. See "Simple questions don't get simple answers from corporate bureaucracies". The light is working fine after I put in newer batteries.
The fourth time was when I found out that our improper time on our cabin answering machine was because I needed a firmware update. None of the friendly folks at Consumer Cellular seemed to understand that the AT&T network was resetting the time. I found this out when I read the answering machine instructions and learned that telephone networks send the time with caller-ID information. When we used a land-line we didn't have caller-ID. Caller-ID is standard with cell phone service. I found that I needed a firmware update from a search of AT&Ts support forums. One user responded to another last month with the solution. I sent email back to Consumer Cellular about this. I wrote that I was tempted to send them an invoice for two hours of Level 2 support work.
I don't expect to have a response from Consumer Cellular until Monday. Meanwhile, I searched the AT&T website for instructions on getting the firmware update. Nada! First, it gave me over 3,000 hits where the first two pages didn't have anything relevant. I searched on the web for the model number and found that the original manufacturer has instructions for upgrading the firmware to the latest level, for those with a Windows computer! I did another peek at the AT&T site and found a page for the "Wireless Home Phone". It had no information at all on updating the firmware!
There are some economists (and many non-economists) who say that the only objective of a corporation should be to provide shareholder value. But to provide shareholder value doesn't a corporation need to provide customer value? At some point a captive customer base may burst their shackles and go elsewhere.
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